


Like You're Something Else

by caimani



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Demon Shane Madej, Humor, Investigations, M/M, Shyan Exchange 2k18, Shyan Writing Events
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-03 01:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15808767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: Ryan and Shane are filming the season finale of Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It's one of the most haunted cities in America, so they've got to catchsomeevidence, right?





	Like You're Something Else

**Author's Note:**

  * For [planetlostinspace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/planetlostinspace/gifts).



The Gettysburg battlefield is a beautiful place early in the morning. Something about the stillness and silence combined with the weight of its historical significance… it just _feels_ like something old is lingering there. 

Earlier, Ryan had told Devon that he wanted to spend some time at the battlefield to get an initial feel for the city before doing any filming. He’s glad that he’s doing that now. It’s quite an experience seeing the site before him: a serene place that would be peaceful if not for the sign boards reminding visitors of the grisly history.

Maybe it’s the morning fog that is still resting heavily over the grass. The tranquility with an edge of eeriness to it. The knowledge that thousands of people fought and died here.

Shane, meanwhile, seems to be engrossed in the history. He picked up a guide when they stopped at the visitor’s center and he’s stopping to read all of the signs with genuine interest. Ryan is mostly just skimming the information whenever he and Shane stop at the signs. 

Because Ryan is hoping—as always—to see a ghost. With all the spirits that must still linger here, one of them might show up. A shadow under a tree, or a figure in the fog. 

Unfortunately, Shane eventually picks up on where Ryan’s attention is.

“Wait a minute,” he says, startling Ryan out of his concentration on a patch of fog in a field that looks promising. “You’re not actually looking for a ghost out here, are you?”

“So what if I am?” Ryan shoots back. “It’s a battlefield, there are probably tons of restless spirits—”

“We don’t even have the cameras recording,” Shane says with a small laugh. “Even if you saw one, you couldn’t prove it to the world.”

“But I’d prove it to you,” Ryan says.

Shane looks like he wasn’t expecting that. He’s quiet for a moment, his mouth opening and closing. Then he shakes his head and turns back to the sign board next to them. “This whole place is covered in fog,” he finally says. “Anything you see could just be a trick of the light.”

Ryan turns away to gaze out at the acres of battlefield before them. Beside him, Shane snorts and moves on, although he does wait for Ryan to catch up before the fog obscures him from view. 

Before long, however, it’s time to leave the battlefield so they can meet up with Devon, TJ, and Mark. As Ryan gets into their rental car and starts to drive away, the sensation he was feeling fades away. Unlike most places they visit, when that kind of sensation is mixed with Ryan’s own fear, this one was combined with some sense of serenity. Ryan almost misses it.

But it only takes a single thought about their plans for the evening for Ryan’s usual anxiety to set in. 

Not just one haunted place, but four different locations throughout the city. Some are connected to the battlefield and the civil war, but each is haunted for its own reasons. The Unsolved team’s plan is to start with the least terrifying of the four and work their way up to what is considered the most haunted place in Gettysburg. 

Ryan shudders at the thought of that last one. After all the research he’s done, he’s not looking forward to it. It’s going to be a long and stressful night, but at least it’s going to be broken up by the time they need to drive to each of the locations. That part of the night won’t be so bad.

Soon, Ryan and Shane are meeting up with Devon, TJ, and Mark at a cafe a few blocks from their hotel. They all know the plans for the day already, but it’s always good to review them again to make sure. It saves them from interruptions or other problems from happening during the actual filming. Also, adding more meticulous pre-checking tends to prevent battery problems like the one in the London tombs.

Midway through a question to Devon however, Ryan realizes that Shane’s been quiet for a long time. He pauses and looks over to see that Shane is not paying attention to a word they’re saying. 

“Hey,” he says, bringing the conversation with Devon to a halt.

“What?” Devon asks, but she too picks up on Shane’s apparent disinterest. TJ and Mark both seem thrown off by his behavior.

Shane doesn’t respond. He doesn’t even seem to notice awkward silence . 

“Shane,” Ryan says, a bit louder. “Are you paying attention?”

Shane still doesn’t respond. Annoyed, Ryan reaches across the table and waves his hand in front of Shane’s face. Shane startles, looks over at Ryan, and then blinks like he’s refocusing his eyes.

“Sorry,” Shane says. “I got… lost in thought. The history of this place, you know…”

Ryan rolls his eyes. He should have figured, since this is Shane, the guy who’s such a nerd about weird history facts that he made a whole show about it. Hopefully that means Shane will be a bit more engaged in this episode. He could bring up some history facts of his own while Ryan is reading his own history of each location. It’ll be sort of like a Ruining History crossover. Ryan’s going to have to remember to mention that if Shane gets carried away nerding out later.

“Sorry,” Shane adds after finally picking up on how the mood has shifted. “I missed that last thing. What were we talking about?”

Ryan sighs but gives Shane a quick recap, and they dive back into their discussion. The rest of the meeting and late breakfast goes smoothly. But Ryan still notices a few moments where it looks like Shane isn’t exactly looking at them. He’s kind of a weird guy sometimes.

Once they're done with breakfast, they leave to drive around Gettysburg and get some B roll footage. The city is full of old buildings that look amazing, and of course the battlefield is a stunning sight. If they had more time and a bigger budget, Ryan would have loved to go to more of these places, but he's pretty confident in the four he decided on. They’re all said to be extremely active with ghost investigators and regular visitors alike. 

Hopefully this will be the episode that he finally gets conclusive paranormal evidence on camera. The last time they did multiple locations in a single episode, they got the demonic activity in the Sallie House that still spooks Ryan to this day. 

Finally, the sun is low enough that it’s painting the sky with color. With an air of anticipation, Ryan, Shane, and the crew return to their first location: the Jennie Wade House. Right outside the house is a statue of Jennie Wade. Ryan and Shane stop to look at it. 

“So that’s Jennie Wade,” Ryan says. “Hopefully we’ll be seeing her soon, not just as a statue, but as a ghost inside.”

Shane sighs. “I mean, when we don’t—”

“ _If_ we don’t—”

“I think it’s still a very nice statue.” Shane says. “Probably more accurate than the Mothman statue.”

Ryan laughs at that, and then Shane reaches for the door handle. Shane walks in first, and Ryan gets a bit of enjoyment out of seeing him have to bend his head down to fit inside. 

“Can you get all of yourself inside?” Ryan says with a smirk. 

“They didn’t build houses for tall people back then,” Shane grumbles. 

“No, they had houses for tall people,” Ryan says. “Just not gargantuan, weirdly-proportioned abominations like you.”

They sit down in two chairs that have been set up for them in the front room and wait for TJ and Mark and Devon to get ready behind the camera, Then, Ryan launches into his history. At first Shane is paying attention, but then his eyes start to wander. He does this same thing at plenty of other locations, but he usually at least chimes in with his own questions or comments. 

Ryan pauses for a second under the guise of catching his breath after reading a long paragraph and looks at Shane a bit more closely. He’s been staring at an empty space across the room for almost half a minute. Ryan squints at the place where Shane’s looking, but there’s nothing there. 

Weird. 

When Ryan finishes his history and starts to explain why the house is haunted, Shane finally starts to engage, so Ryan dismisses his earlier disinterest as simple distraction. There are quite a few things to look at here, even though it’s a small space. Maybe Shane was looking at the creepy brick wall.

It doesn’t take long for Ryan and Shane to move through each part of the house, pointing out interesting old housewares and looking for anything unusual. Unfortunately…

Shane stops suddenly, causing Ryan to bump into his back. “What the heck—”

“Look!” Shane says excitedly. “Bullet holes.”

Ryan looks. “Yeah, those are still here.”

“Kinda makes it creepy,” Shane says. “I wouldn’t want to live in a house with bullet holes in it. Bugs could get in.”

“There were bullet holes in the door too,” Ryan points out.

Shane’s eyes go wide. “Oh, I didn’t see those.”

“Yeah, you were too busy trying to fit yourself inside,” Ryan says.

Shane shrugs. “Yeah. If I was bug-sized like you, I’d be able to get in through one of the bullet holes.”

Ryan scoffs. “I’m five ten, okay?”

Shane just smiles and keeps walking to the next place in the house. 

Outside, the sun finally goes down past the horizon, casting more shadows throughout the house. Despite that extra spookiness, the house and whatever lurks inside remains quiet. Ryan and Shane try asking questions, and then ask for some kind of sign that Jennie Wade or any other ghosts can hear them, but there’s no response. At least nothing that Ryan notices. Maybe there will be something on the audio recorder later.

At least Shane doesn’t mock Ryan for the inactivity as much as he normally does. He’s probably waiting to do it later, but it makes for a nicer start to the evening.

Shane does, however, say, “Jennie Wade, if you’re here, can you tell us if you’re mad that they left holes all over your house? If you say yes, we’ll try and get them fixed for you,” which earns him some annoyance from Ryan.

But soon, they’re out of their time scheduled for the Jennie Wade House, so Ryan, Shane, and the crew get back in the car. It’s time for the second location of the night: the Sachs Covered Bridge.

“Okay, this one, I’m much more nervous about,” Ryan says. “Especially because it’s going to be dark as fuck there.”

“Another bridge,” Shane says, sounding far happier than Ryan is right now. “Brings back memories of our bridge down in Alton. Is this one haunted by a demon too?”

“No, it’s not haunted by a demon,” Ryan says, a slight panic rushing through him at the mere thought of demons. “It’s only haunted by ghosts. More Civil War ghosts.”

“But it _could_ have a demon,” Shane says. “You wouldn’t know until you met him.”

“It’s not a demon,” Ryan repeats firmly. “Not all bridges are haunted by demons.”

“I thought you said they were gateways to hell,” Shane says, still sounding far too merry. 

“Sometimes they are,” Ryan admits. “But this one is just haunted by some soldiers who were killed for defecting from their unit.”

“Hmm,” Shane says. He leaves the conversation on that word and is quiet for the rest of the drive, which is almost as infuriating as arguing with him over something he doesn’t even believe in. 

When they arrive at the bridge, it’s immediately horrible. The only light they have is from their flashlights, which don’t do much to illuminate the darkness shrouding the place. The location is isolated as hell and the bridge itself feels like a huge yawning doorway into a nightmare.

“Wow!” Shane exclaims. “Look at that architecture! It’s beautiful!”

Ryan chuckles nervously. “Nothing about this place creeps you out?”

“I mean,” Shane says. “I guess I’d be scared if someone was hiding in there, since I can’t really see down it. But it’s a beautiful bridge, Ryan. How many covered bridges like this still exist in America? And it’s in such good condition too!”

Ryan shakes his head. He’s so terrified. Shane’s jokes about demons have made his imagination go wild wondering if there really is something more sinister at this bridge.

“Let’s just get this over with so we can move on to the next place,” Ryan says. “Although... that one’s going to be even worse than this one.”

“Alright,” Shane says, moving closer to Ryan. “Tell me what’s so spooky about this bridge.”

So Ryan explains the history of the bridge: about the three soldiers who were hanged from the bridge after deserting from the army. Shane is fully engaged in the information, which would be nice if Ryan didn’t feel so nervous to be here. 

When Ryan finishes, Shane almost immediately starts walking into the darkness of the bridge. 

“Whoa, slow down,” Ryan says, hurrying to catch up.

“Ghosts!” Shane yells into the bridge. His voice echoes off the wooden walls. “Are you still in here? Or have you finally escaped Pennsylvania! I know you didn’t want to be here!”

Ryan shivers at hearing the echo of that last sentence. “Obviously they haven’t escaped if they’re still haunting the bridge,” he says.

“Oh, that sucks,” Shane says. “They wanted to leave so much but they fucked up and now they’re stuck here forever.” He sweeps the beam of his flashlight all over the walls of the bridge.

Ryan bites back some of his dread and raises his voice too. “Hey ghosts? Sorry you got killed. We’re just here to talk with you, if you’re alright with that. Can you say something back to us? Maybe give us a sign you’re here?”

“Show yourselves!” Shane demands.

“Chill, they’ve been stuck here for over a hundred years,” Ryan says. “It takes a lot of spiritual energy—”

“Come on, you marched all the way from… wherever in the South you were from!” Shane says. “You can show up for a second. Or knock me over.”

Ryan rolls his eyes and moves away from Shane, just in case. “Ghosts, you can ignore this loud guy next to me. I just want to know that you’re here.”

There’s no response, but Ryan does feel a chill go down his spine. He’s silent for a moment, and then he says, “Maybe they’re at the other end of the bridge?”

“Maybe,” Shane says. “I guess it’s a big enough bridge that they might not have walked over to this side yet.”

Ryan and Shane walk from one end of the bridge to the other, looking and listening for anything ghostly. At the far end, which feels just as creepy as the part where they entered, Ryan hesitantly suggests they stand at opposite ends of the bridge and turn off their lights for five minutes. He waits while Shane walks back to the other side, and then together, they turn off their flashlights.

Five minutes of staring down a dark bridge. Ryan knows Shane is standing at the other end, but he might as well be staring into nothingness for all he can see. 

“Hey, ghosts,” Ryan says, nervous as hell. “Um, sorry I forgot to introduce myself earlier. I’m Ryan.”He pauses, and then continues, “I heard that you tried to get out of the war and it didn’t go so well. Sorry about that. Uh, I have a device here that you can use to talk to me, if you want. I’ll just, uh, turn it on now.”

He turns on the spirit box. From the opposite end of the bridge, he can hear Shane’s distant squawk of dismay. Ryan ignores it and listens intently to the spirit box.

Within seconds, he gets something. 

_“Stop……hot…”_

Ryan’s heart leaps. “Was that you?” he asks. “Something’s hot? Was it hot the day you died?”

It takes a moment, but after a short wait, he gets something else.

_“Go home…”_

“Oh my god…” Ryan whispers. Two words. Two coherent words. It makes sense, that the ghost would want to go home. A guy from somewhere in the South who had to go up to Pennsylvania to fight, tried to leave, and was killed for it. 

Holy shit, he can’t wait to show Shane this footage. It’s pretty damn compelling, and it’s only the second location. Despite the horrible, terrifying conditions, he’s excited. 

“Do you want to go home?” Ryan says, hoping for just one more response. If he can get an actual conversation with this ghost, it’ll be an even stronger case proving ghosts are real.

Almost a full minute passes with nothing but static. Ryan waits in silence and anticipation.

Finally, just as he’s about to turn off the spirit box, he gets one last word.

_“Scared…”_

That chills Ryan. He shuts off the box without thinking. His heart is pounding. 

“Alright, that’s five minutes!” Shane calls from the other side of the bridge. Ryan doesn’t move. Soon, Shane appears, walking towards him across the bridge. He smiles when he sees Ryan.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he jokes. “Did one of them show up?”

“One of them talked to me on the spirit box.”

Shane sighs heavily and Ryan leaps forward to defend himself. “No, _listen_ , I’ll show you what it said in the car. I fucking swear, it was definitely a ghost. It was more than one word, and it made sense!”

Shane sighs again. “Alright, I’ll look at it.” he says with resignation. “Is this all we’re doing at this bridge? We’ve still got the other two locations.”

Ryan pauses, looking down at the spirit box. Something is definitely here. If he spends longer, tries again with the spirit box, maybe he can get something more. But that would mean possibly giving up on the other two places, which might have even more compelling evidence. That is the point of going to consecutively more haunted places all in one night. 

Should he take the gamble and bet everything on this place, or see if he was right in saving the other two locations for the end of the night?

The other two…

“Yeah, I think I’m done here,” Ryan finally says. 

They gather up their equipment and return to the car. Before driving off, Ryan finds the recording of his time with the spirit box and plays it for Shane. Shane watches, and his unimpressed demeanor absolutely exasperates Ryan.

As soon as they finish the recording, Shane turns to Ryan. Mark still has a camera focused on them both. “Ryan,” Shane says slowly, “You know I don’t put much weight in anything the spirit box puts out—”

“Oh, fuck you, you are _not_ going to tell me—”

“But, ok, I’ll admit the coincidence is interesting, and if I was someone who believes in this—”

“It’s not a coincidence!” Ryan says. 

“It _is_ a coincidence,” Shane argues. “You got a couple of words that can be put into a certain context that happens to align—”

“The ghost said ‘go home,’ Shane, I think that’s pretty fucking—”

“The _spirit box_ said ‘go home,’” Shane says. “The radio stations around here—”

“I think plenty of viewers will agree that the three things it said were significant,” Ryan says. “All of which, I might add, make sense coming from a soldier’s ghost at this location.”

Shane groans. “Alright, fine. I _do_ think it’s interesting, by the way. If it was coming out of any other piece of equipment, that would be solid evidence for me. But the spirit box is bullshit.”

Ryan wants to keep arguing, but they’ve been down this road before. Even when the words come out as clearly as they did just now, Shane will never be convinced by evidence from the spirit box. He’s not going to be satisfied unless a ghost manifests directly in front of his face. He’s so… impossible.

“Fine.” Ryan says, frustrated. “Let’s go to the next place.”

Their next location is back at the battlefield, a huge pile of boulders called the Devil’s Den. As they leave the car and approach the place, Ryan has to admire how the size of the boulders dwarf all of them, even Shane. The place has a completely unique feeling of spookiness to it. Big creepy haunted buildings are one thing. Vast dark forests and colossal natural features like this are another thing entirely. 

“This is a part of Gettysburg Battlefield called the Devil’s Den,” Ryan starts. “It’s the third stop on our haunted tour of Gettysburg. Definitely the place with the most bloodshed.”

“The Devil’s Den,” Shane repeats ominously. “You sure there aren’t any demons out here?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Ryan says dryly. “It got its name from Gettysburg locals before the battle, because there was a snake they called the Devil that lived here. It was an intense site of fighting during the battle, and some visitors claim to still hear gunfire and cannonfire. There’s also a soldier who’s visited multiple people who have come here, but he vanishes before they’re able to take a picture of him.”

“So you want to meet that guy?” Shane says. “Think he’ll actually show himself for us? Unlike your spirit box friend from the bridge?”

Ryan ignores that and continues to walk closer to the boulders. They look a lot spookier at night than they did during the day— and they already looked intimidating in the daylight. As Ryan draws closer, he starts to feel much better about leaving the bridge to come here. He’s confident that this place is going to provide some amazing content. The rocks are even creepier than the bridge, and the location has a similar feeling to the part of the battlefield they visited this morning. Eerie, but remarkably peaceful. 

Ryan actually doesn't feel too bothered by this location. It's kind of nice. He feels braver, and heads over to a spot that looks like it'll be a good shot. 

Once the crew is ready, Ryan starts his brief history about the battle, and moves on to the specifics about this location. Shane comments and jokes along, but for some reason it seems half-hearted, as if Shane is distracted again. As Ryan starts to talk about the ghosts that have been spotted here, he notices Shane is actually glancing around with an expression of discomfort.

Ryan frowns. “Are you okay?”

Shane turns back with the fakest smile Ryan’s ever seen on him. “Yeah!”

Yeah, right, that’s totally believable. Ryan glances at Devon behind the camera. She’s frowning as well. 

“If you say so…” Ryan mutters. He sighs and starts walking to a narrow pathway between some of the boulders. 

All of a sudden, Shane is at his side, nudging his arm.

“Hey, let's go that way instead,” he says, pointing in the opposite direction. 

Ryan looks to compare his initial direction to Shane’s suggestion. “Uh, maybe after we go this way,” he says. Shane’s way looks… kind of boring. “I want to try and reach out to the ghost over here.”

“Why not over there?” Shane asks, actually moving to block Ryan from going forward. 

And. Okay. This is starting to get annoying. 

“What's the big deal?” Ryan asks, crossing his arms and scowling at Shane.

Shane flusters, clearly at a loss for words. He’s not making eye contact with Ryan at all anymore. He keeps looking at something just to the side of Ryan. Ryan glances in the direction he’s looking, but he can’t see any—

Suddenly there’s a—something. Like a shadow, or at least a darker presence passing through the already dark place. Ryan gasps and a chill passes through him. All at once, the peaceful feeling of the battlefield has been replaced by something that feels… Ryan doesn’t even know how to describe it. It feels very old, very large, and like there’s some kind of malicious intent hidden within. Like what he felt at the Sallie House and the Alton Bridge—

Shane pushes past Ryan, charging through the narrow pathway between the rocks. Ryan sprints to follow after him, but he nearly runs into Shane, who has stopped just around the bend of the largest boulder. He looks distracted and anxious, in a state that Ryan has never seen him in before. 

“What the hell was—” Ryan starts.

“Nothing,” Shane says, much too quickly. “The wind, Ryan, we _are_ outside—” 

“Bull- _shit_ it was the wind!” Ryan yells. “You felt that too, didn’t you? You saw—” He pushes Shane back out of the way. Behind them, Mark is catching up to them, carrying his camera.

“Ryan, come on, there’s nothing—” 

Ryan isn’t buying this for a second. He shoves past Shane and squints into the darkness around them. There’s got to be something. Shane wouldn’t be a dick and act like this just to screw with Ryan. He’s at least serious about maintaining the integrity of the show. And… there’s got to be something causing the weird creepy pressure that’s building around them—

Suddenly there’s a burst of dark blue light a few feet away from Ryan and a cracking sound like thunder. Ryan stumbles backwards in alarm and Shane immediately surges forwards. He runs straight towards the place where the light flashed, where a enormous shadowy figure is now standing.

Holy shit.

This has got to be something supernatural. Something paranormal.

Ryan would be excited if he didn’t feel so terrified by the sudden intensification of the presence surrounding him. This is worse than the Queen Mary. Worse than Waverly and the Sallie House and the Dauphine Orleans Hotel and Pennhurst and the London Tombs. It’s not just a feeling of unease. It’s a feeling that provokes absolute terror, and Ryan feels helpless in the fullness of it. Now he can understand all the stories he’s read about supernatural encounters—how people feel so small and insignificant in the face of something so much more powerful than they are.

He can’t do anything but watch as the form takes shape out of the darkness—something dark blue, with six eye-like slits glowing white. Several tall horns curl upwards above its head, and its long clawed limbs hang low to the ground. A jolt of fear strikes Ryan frozen to the spot, his eyes locks with those six horrible white points in the darkness.

But then Shane is moving between him and the figure. 

Ryan’s heart catches in his throat. Is Shane _insane_? Can’t he see what’s going on? Can’t he feel—?

“Get out of here,” Shane says in a weirdly authoritative tone. 

A laugh echoes through the air and Ryan feels sick. This thing is immensely powerful. There’s no hope.

“Or what?” a voice says in a mocking tenor. “Are _you_ going to force me out of this place, little demon?” The figure suddenly grows larger—large enough for the eyes stare at Ryan again, over Shane’s body. Ryan’s body trembles in fear at the sight of it. It’s looking at him—oh god, it’s looking at him. He’s going to die here.

Shane takes a full step forwards. He’s being such an idiot, Ryan wants to scream at him but he just can’t make his voice work.

“Ryan, listen, you’ve got to get away from here,” Shane says shakily. “I don’t know how long—I’m sorry this is how you had to find out, but I—”

“I will have that one,” the voice—the supernatural entity—the _demon_ says with sickening delight. It glides silently forwards, all of it so large and terrible. Shane moves to block it, but he might as well be fighting a tidal wave. The demon knocks Shane aside and he goes flying straight.

Ryan’s heartbeat skips as he sees Shane crash into one of the boulders. Even though the demon is now entirely focused on him, Ryan suddenly feels a hot rush of anger at it for hurting Shane. Ryan’s hands clench and he glares at the demon with a burning rage that consumes his mind. A rage that, in the face of the demon and its intense malevolent presence, ignites something within him like a spark turning a dry forest into a wildfire.

The demon glides closer and closer to Ryan. Behind the demon, Shane gets to his feet and runs—faster than Ryan has ever seen him move—but the demon bats him away again and he crashes into another one of the boulders.

“Humans call this place The Devil’s Den,” the demon says, its shadowed face contorting and its eye slits narrowing as it crouches to face Ryan. Slowly, a mouth opens, revealing hundreds of teeth and a massive tongue of dark blue fire within. “It is _my_ den. The many lost souls here have been a treat but _you_ … there is something _special_ about you...”

Ryan can’t shake the red-hot rage that continues to build within him. It doesn’t make any sense—he should be terrified and trying to run, like Shane said, but… something inside him just doesn’t want to. He stares right into the six glowing eyes of the demon with no fear at all. Just anger.

“RYAN!” Shane screams, trying one more time to rush at the demon. It’s futile. Ryan knows that and Shane has to know it too. Still, he does it anyway and instead of hitting him aside, the demon grabs him in one of its huge clawed arms and pins him roughly against the ground.

That does it.

Something snaps deep within Ryan.

His eyes narrow and his vision blurs in a red-orange haze. Ryan grits his teeth and takes a single step forwards, towards the demon. 

And all of a sudden, bright ribbons of goldenrod-colored light wrap themselves around the demon, pulling and slicing into its body. At first, the demon is clearly shocked by the light, but soon it starts to thrash. It rises up to its full height, but the goldenrod ribbons move fast to bind it and bring it back down to the ground. As the light cuts into the demon, its body starts to disintegrate. The demon screams an unearthly roar, twisting and trying to escape the merciless light.

But the damage has already been done. With a final air-splitting scream, the demon drops Shane and vanishes in another flash of dark blue light.

And Ryan watches it all happen, unmoving.

The aura of terror leaves as quickly as the demon disappears from sight. Ryan should feel relieved, or at least feel _something_ but the rage that is still burning inside his mind. That demon hurt Shane. 

Shane…

...Who is slowly picking himself off the ground and staring at Ryan in shock. He looks shaken, but otherwise unharmed.

“Ryan,” Shane breathes. “You’re… you’re a fae.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

This is something Shane had never thought he would see.

Where to even start? Maybe with the most surprising thing of the evening, which shockingly isn’t the fact that a concerningly powerful demon was lurking around the Gettysburg battlefield eating the lost human souls. The most shocking thing isn’t even the fact that Shane was just outed as a demon by that monster. 

No, the most shocking thing of the evening is discovering the fact that his best friend is a goddamn fae. And Shane learned this, not by his own inference or by Ryan’s own admission, but from watching a showdown between Ryan Bergara and the most powerful demon Shane’s ever come across on this plane of existence. 

What a fucking revelation. For a moment there, Shane had thought this was going to be it. He’s been protecting Ryan from ghosts that might scare him and demons who might mess with him for years! Clearly Ryan didn’t need any of that protection. He’s a fae! He could have banished the ghosts much more effectively himself, compared to Shane’s furtive glares that sent the ghosts slowly scuttling back into their corners.

The deer skull mask sitting over Ryan’s eyes abruptly disappears. Ryan blinks and then turns a confused gaze on Shane.

“What the fuck just happened?” he says. 

Um.

“Uh, that’s what I’m asking you?” Shane says. “What the fuck, Ryan, when were you going to tell me?”

There’s literally no trace of the angry fae Ryan that just defeated the demon in the convincingly human-looking Ryan that is staring at Shane right now. 

“Look, if I had any clue that this was going to happen, I would have just gone with the battlefield and skipped the other locations,” Ryan finally says. He turns to look over his shoulder. “Did you get—what the hell?”

Shane looks back to see what Ryan is looking at. TJ, Devon, and Mark are all lying on the ground, unconscious. No surprise there, considering the strength of the demon that was just forced out of this dimension. They should be okay, though. 

Ryan runs over to them, and Shane follows. “No, no, no,” he hears Ryan muttering. “Please let this footage be okay—”

“You’re worried about the show?” Shane says incredulously.

Ryan shoots a glare at him and Shane backs up for a moment, remembering how that glare literally ripped the other demon—much stronger than Shane—to pieces.

“Well, since you’re okay and I’m okay and that demon is gone, yeah I’m thinking about the show!” Ryan says. “We just saw an actual demon manifest in front of us and—actually, how _are_ you okay?” he says, interrupting his own train of thought. “It threw you against the rocks… several times…”

Shane rolls his eyes. Seriously, Ryan will entertain every wild theory on the internet, but even when a demon straight up tells him Shane’s biggest secret, he doesn’t catch it.

“Of course I’m fine, Ryan.”

“But that demon threw you—” Ryan repeats.

Shane allows his horns—little pointy things that stick noticeably up out of his hair—to manifest. “I’m a demon, Ryan, I can handle stuff like that.”

And okay, Ryan may have heard the demon reveal Shane’s secret but it clearly hasn’t sunken in yet.

“You’re a fucking demon!?” Ryan exclaims, leaping to his feet and pointing at Shane.

“You’re a fae!” Shane shoots back. 

Ryan’s eyes are practically bugging out of his head. “Oh, my god, did you do that to the other demon?” Ryan says, his voice shaking.

“No, I didn’t!” Shane says. “That was you! I don’t have power like that! You’ve got… fae powers. You did that to it!”

“No, I didn’t!” Ryan says. “How could I do something like that! I’m… normal. I’m a normal human.” 

“Then how could you stand up to a demon like that and still be perfectly fine?” Shane asks, deciding to turn Ryan’s own logic against him.

“That… that wasn’t me that did that.” Ryan says, but his voice is unsure. Shane jumps on that hesitation.

“You did something, you felt something, didn’t you? You felt some kind of power inside you. Maybe you’ve never felt something like that before. But it still felt like a part of you.” God, Shane feels like he’s spinning such bullshit. He has no idea how fae and their powers work. He’s only ever heard of them before, and all he knows about them is that they’re very dangerous to things like demons. 

Thankfully, it looks like at least some of his words are striking home with Ryan.

Ryan crosses his arms stubbornly. “How the fuck am I a supernatural thing and I don’t even know it?”

Shane gestures wildly with his arms. “I don’t know! I don’t know much about fae, they’re weird!”

“Fae aren’t real!” Ryan says.

Shane slaps his hand against his forehead and groans. “Ryan… okay, fine.” He glances over at the humans, who are thankfully still unconscious after the encounter with the demon. They won’t hear any of this. “Ghosts are real. Spirits and poltergeists and all those things are real. Demons are real and I’m one.” He lets his eyes turn black and his horns appear and Ryan gasps. “And fae are real too. You are one.”

Ryan looks extremely conflicted for a long moment. His entire world must be crashing down around him.

Then, Ryan's face twists in anger and he punches Shane in the shoulder. Shane stumbles, surprised by the force of the blow. 

“You fucking dick!” Ryan yells. “You're a demon? Were you never going to tell me that?”

Shane struggles to think of what to say. “I mean, it's not exactly something—”

“All those times we've gone ghost hunting and demon hunting, you've never thought 'hey, maybe I should tell Ryan’—” Ryan's eyes suddenly widen. “Wait, have there actually been ghosts and things at all those places?”

“No!” Shane says. Too fast.

Ryan glares. “Did you scare them away? Tell me the truth!” With that command, there’s a strange flash of goldenrod colored light.

“Yes.” Shane chokes out, the word heavy in his mouth. 

“Why?” Another flash of goldenrod light. Shane isn't sure if Ryan is actually aware of what he's doing, but he can't do anything about it when Ryan is magically compelling him to tell the truth. 

Shane’s words tumble out of his mouth, forced by the fae magic. “I… at first I was just interested in what you might find. I knew I would be able to see them. I kept them away because you were already scared of them even without seeing them.” Ryan’s eyes narrow and Shane keeps going, faster. “When you said you were terrified of demons, I thought maybe I should do my best to keep it a secret. Both that demons are real and that I’m one. Besides, I didn't think you would believe me—”

“How much proof have you hidden from me?” Ryan says, breaking the compulsion magic. 

Shane clams up. Ryan doesn’t need to know that.

Thankfully Ryan then turns to gesture at the space where the demon vanished. “Okay, so that… fuck. You’re a demon, that was also a demon, and I’m a fae. And I… defeated that. With fae powers that I didn’t even know that I have.” He stands still for a moment, then brings his hands up to grip his hair. “Oh god, this is all too much.”

Shane feels bad. “Sorry,” he mumbles. “I wish you didn’t have to find out like this.” It’s not the worst situation, Shane supposes. Things could have gone a lot worse with that demon. Ryan’s powers might not have kicked in at all. Devon, Mark, and TJ could have gotten hurt. 

Even so, this is definitely a lot all at once. 

Ryan drops his hands and scoffs. “Yeah, I bet you wish I never found out about you. How long have you known?”

Shane blinks. “How… long?”

“That we’re both supernatural creatures running around looking for the supernatural. I guess that’s been some hilarious irony for you.”

“I didn’t know about you.” Shane says.

Ryan cocks his head at Shane. “Really?” he says skeptically.

“You literally never did anything that would have suggested you were a fae!” Shane says.

Ryan considers that, still eyeing Shane cautiously. “Then why?”

“Why what?”

“Why?” Ryan repeats, suddenly striding back over to Shane. “Why do all that? Why chase off all the other demons and ghosts? You said it was to… what, to keep them from scaring me? Isn’t the whole point of a demon’s existence to torment people?” 

That hurts, but Shane tries his best to keep his reaction from showing. He doesn’t think he can—

Ryan continues, “Is this all some kind of game to you? I’ve been so serious about this whole thing, this whole time—”

Shane can’t stand it anymore. “It’s because I wanted to keep you safe!”

Ryan looks confused. “Why?” he whispers again.

And this is it. The moment where Shane could hide everything behind misdirection again or come out and lay it all bare for Ryan. The reason he was interested in Unsolved in the first place. He wanted to do a show with just him and Ryan. The reason he chased away anything that looked scary or dangerous. He didn’t want Ryan to be in any kind of emotional distress. The reason he makes dumb jokes to keep the mood light. He likes seeing Ryan laugh. The reason he’s always been happiest at Ryan’s side.

Because… 

There’s no fae power forcing the truth out of him this time, but for the first time, Shane actually feels comfortable saying it. Ryan knows he’s a demon now, and that was the main thing keeping him from admitting it. Besides his own fear, of course.

“Because I like you.”

And that truly renders Ryan speechless. 

In the silence, Shane speaks again, his voice shaking slightly in the wake of that confession. “I… I like you. I liked you before too. As a person. Before Unsolved. I know, you probably still think demons can’t have feelings, but I do. Have them for you.”

Ryan is still and silent. The noises of birds and insects slowly returning to the demon infested area of the battlefield are almost deafening as Shane waits hopefully for Ryan to say something. Anything.

Finally, after a long moment of Shane wondering if he’d said the right thing or just ruined an already-ruined night, Ryan looks away and shakes his head. 

“Okay, fuck. Let’s… fuck— Let’s figure this… this stuff out at the hotel tonight. I promise I’ll talk about this, but. Let me have some time, okay?”

“Okay,” Shane says. He’s relieved that Ryan hasn’t immediately run away yelling. That’s got to be a good sign, right? 

“After we finish shooting the episode,” Ryan concludes.

Episode?

Shane blinks. “We’re still doing the episode?” He glances over at the humans, who are all still lying unconscious in the grass.

“Of course we’re still doing the episode!” Ryan says. “Fuck, I’ll cut this thing out, but I still want to salvage what I can! This is going to be the season finale! And… listen, I bet you were scaring away the ghosts at the other two locations—”

Shane doesn’t bother hiding his smirk. Ryan glares.

“—Don’t do that at the last place! The Farnsworth House Inn is supposed to be the most haunted place in Gettysburg! And now that I _know_ that ghosts are definitely real and _here_ , I’m going to do whatever I need to get video evidence. Fuck, I’ve got fucking fae powers! Soon as I figure out how to use them, you bet your ass I’m going to be using them to attract ghosts.”

Shane smiles. “I don’t think that’s how fae powers work.”

“Shut up!” Ryan snaps, but he’s smiling too. “You literally just said you don’t know how fae powers work.”

“They probably don’t work like, being a ghost magnet.”

“Oh, don’t you start, demon,” Ryan says. Shane gets a little leap in his heart when the word isn’t spat at him like a curse. It’s more like… testing out a playful nickname.

He can roll with that.

Ryan kneels down next to TJ and Devon and starts shaking them gently. Shane smiles fondly at him. Things are going to work out. Somehow, but it’s going to work. They’re going to finish this episode, Ryan’s going to… hopefully do something about Shane’s confession, and Shane… 

Well.

As Devon, TJ, and Mark wake up and Ryan tells them some lie about weird winds and electrical interference, Shane is already putting together a plan in his mind of how to encourage whatever ghosts residing in the final location to push something off a shelf. It’ll make Ryan happy.


End file.
